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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24750445">paper thin walls</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/hoodiestrings/pseuds/hoodiestrings'>hoodiestrings</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>2019 phan, Apartment, Coffee, M/M, big - Freeform, outside pov</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 05:13:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>927</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24750445</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/hoodiestrings/pseuds/hoodiestrings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"How is your new apartment, I am sorry I didn't ask. How are your neighbours? Are they nice?"</p><p>"Noisy. They are noisy."</p><p> </p><p>( or dan and phil from their neighbour's perspective )</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dan Howell/Phil Lester</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>92</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>paper thin walls</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>i was looking for a fic like this but i couldnt find any. so i wrote it myself.</p><p>its not the best thing i have written. if anyone else wants to write this idea you can.</p><p>( you don't have to give me credit bc i think all of us have thought about this idea at least once )</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>John blames the walls.</p><p>Mostly because he doesn't know who his neighbours are. Well, that's not entirely true. He knows they are two guys called Dan and Phil. He doesn't know how they look — he has never seen them — but he knows that the one with the deeper voice is Phil. He knows that the room on the other side of his bedroom has been made a thing they call 'gaming room', and that almost every Thursday, around six typically, they play games and scream in frustration or victory. </p><p><em>It's funny,</em> he thinks, <em>how much you can learn from voices alone.</em></p><p>He tells Lacey that, when she calls him one month after moving in. She was away in her hometown, mourning the death of her grandmother. </p><p>"How are you?" </p><p>"I am okay," she says, her voice tight "I miss her, obviously, but we were never so close. And my Aunt Pearl was there; she asked me when I am going to settle down and have children. I was so mad. Does this make me selfish?"</p><p>John's answer is immediate : "No. I'm sorry you have to deal with that."</p><p>Lacey sighs, the air escaping her with a 'whoosh'. "It's okay. She loves me, she just isn't the most accepting."</p><p>They stay in silence for a while. The noises from the other side of the wall start. Six. Right on time. </p><p>"How is your new apartment, I am sorry I didn't ask. How are your neighbours? Are they nice?"</p><p>"Noisy. They are noisy."</p><p>John brings the phone closer to the wall, where he is sitting and where the noises are the highest. Lacey barks out a laugh, loud and shrill. He feels his heart squeeze pleasantly, and then painfully. It's his fault. It's his fault he tried reaching out for someone so out of his reach. And now he is stuck in the middle with no way to move.</p><p>"But seriously," Lacey speaks after she has quitened down "Why don't you just ask then to stop?"</p><p>John shrugs, "It's not like I'm here, in my bedroom, usually. It's the room I use the least, in fact."</p><p>Lacey hums.</p><p>They talk some more, about life and work. Lacey complains a bit more about her aunt, and John tells her about the strange client he had. <em>She wanted all walls to be bright orange and dark purple</em>, he says, and Lacey makes a sound between a chuckle and a cry of horror. They must have talked for 20 more minutes, even if it felt like only 5. He forgot how much he missed her, and how much of a good friend she is.</p><p>He hangs up, and starts getting up to go make himself something to eat, when there's a loud crash.</p><p>The crash isn't from his home, but the other side of the wall. He freezes, because it sounds like something heavy has fallen down, and worries that someone is hurt. But then there's laughter and a shrill cry of 'no, no, no,' (probably from Dan), and John relaxes. They don't seem hurt.</p><p>There's some shuffling as well, coming from the soles of someone's feet and skidding of hard plastic or metal, like a chair across the floor.</p><p>"Are you okay?"</p><p>John recognizes the voice; it's Phil.</p><p>"Yeah," Dan replies, and John feels like he is intruding on something. </p><p>There's a chuckle, fond more than anything else. "Idiot," then, "I love you."</p><p>John leaps out of the bed and makes his way towards his bedroom door. He feels guilty, like he has witnessed something he should not have, like he has violated his neighbours' privacy. His steps are quick, but not quick enough, it seems. Because before he could, he hears a laugh, softer and more meaningful than what he has always heard from the other side.</p><p>"I love you too."</p><p><br/>
-</p><p><br/>
The first time he sees them — Dan and Phil — is on his day off. He is going out to get coffee, not Starbucks, but a small, cosy cafe just down the street.</p><p>There are two men at the door beside him. The brown haired one fumbles with the keys in his hand, as his hands work to lock his flat. His fingers are trembling, John notices, and apparently the black haired one does too, because he reaches out and curls his fingers around the other's waist and presses himself flush against the brunet's back. </p><p>"It'll be fine, Dan." the black haired one — Phil, John knows now — says, moving his hand soothingly.</p><p>Dan leans back in his arms. "I know."</p><p>John slips away before he could break their little bubble. But he doesn't understand. He doesn't really understand how someone can look at each other the way they do. And he doesn't understand the fear in Dan's eyes, the insecurity. Has it always been there? </p><p>He reaches the cafe and orders, and there are two teenage girls in the table in front of his. There's a laptop in front of them, and earphones plugged in, each one in both their ears. A video is playing, and John understands.</p><p>The face on the screen is familiar, and John feels proud for someone he never really knew.</p><p><br/>
-</p><p><br/>
A couple days later, when he is a little late to work, he meets them again. But this time they seem to notice him as well. He is going down a staircase the other two is going up. They don't make small talk, but both of them smile at him and he smiles right back. He never blamed them, after all.</p><p>John blames the walls.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>hope you enjoyed!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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